Vegas Broker Sentenced In Clam Scam Gets 40-Month Term For Buying Illegally Harvested Geoducks

Sun., Dec. 21, 1997

Associated Press

A Las Vegas shellfish broker has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for buying poached geoduck clams and scheming to harm a competitor.

A joint federal and state sting operation caught Nichols Paul DeCourville, 68, purchasing nearly 33,000 pounds of illegally harvested giant clams, worth about $330,000 on the wholesale market, from September 1995 to October 1996.

He pleaded guilty earlier to charges of attempted extortion and conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner on Friday fined DeCourville $4,000 and ordered three years of supervision after his release.

DeCourville, who operated a Las Vegas-based company called NDC Group Inc., admitted he purchased geoducks he knew had not been reported on shellfish receiving tickets and that he knew were handled and shipped by a company that was not certified by the state Health Department.

Geoducks, harvested legally by divers through leases on tideland tracts from the state or Indian tribes, sold wholesale for about 75 cents a pound a decade ago. In recent years, prices have soared beyond $10 a pound.

The extortion charge stemmed from June 1997, when DeCourville became angry when he learned that Olympia broker Cornelius Bakker had begun buying geoducks from divers for nearly $6.50 a pound when other brokers were paying $4.50, according to the U.S. attorney’s complaint.

In taped conversations, DeCourville agreed to pay $5,000 to have someone break Bakker’s arm or leg, court papers said. Before his arrest in Las Vegas on June 19, DeCourville transferred the $5,000 payment, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The prospective “hit man” was cooperating in the investigation; Bakker was never harmed.

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